EBay Wants You To 'Shop The World' in First Global Campaign

First Global Brand Campaign Highlights That Everything Is 'Instantly Shoppable'

EBay is launching its first global campaign and revamping its homepage.

"Shop the world" will launch Oct. 13 and coincide with the debut of a sleeker, carefully edited homepage. The 19-year-old company's homepage has long been a search-driven affair, though the company last year debuted Collections, enabling buyers and sellers to curate items.

CMO Richelle Parham describes Collections, which have been highlighted in other areas of the site, beyond the homepage, as the "intersection of utility and engagement." Initially, the collections on the homepage will tie back directly to the TV spot, showcasing categories ranging from women's running to lighting fixtures. The homepage will also highlight the anthem spot after it goes live on Monday, as well as call out the fact that eBay has more than 800 million listings, half of which ship for free and 80% of which are new items.

"We've never gone out to the customer with one single message at the same time. All of the creative across markets is the same creative concept, the same key message," said Ms. Parham. "This is the tightest connection [we've had] from marketing efforts to the product experience."

The campaign tagline is designed to highlight for consumers that "anywhere you go, anything you see, you can be inspired by the things around you and those things can be instantly shoppable on eBay," said Ms. Parham. The spot shows "big, inspirational moments that become personal, ownable moments."

TV spots launch Monday, with the campaign launching through social channels -- another first for the retailer -- just prior to that. Media weight will be similar to eBay's past efforts, from a TV and digital perspective, Ms. Parham said, but eBay will ramp up its presence in social-media channels.

The campaign is the result of a review that began earlier this year. Although the search wasn't for an agency of record, it was specifically to find agencies to help revamp its image on a global scale. EBay tapped Omnicom's Goodby Silverstein & Partners for creative, and WPP's MediaCom for media.

Goodby has previously worked with the brand, said Ms. Parham. "We're thrilled with the partnership. They came with an amazing idea around strategy for the campaign," she said, noting the new campaign is the idea the a agency pitched during the review process.

EBay has been making moves in the last couple years to update its brand. In 2012, it introduced a logo designed by Lippincott that it said reflected its newer, more "modern" positioning. The logo went from one with bubbly lettering to one with sleeker lines.

EBay is not a huge measured media spender, despite its well-known brand name. It spent $51 million on U.S. measured media in 2013, including subsidiaries PayPal and StubHub, according to Kantar Media.

EBay also recently announced plans to spin off Paypal by mid-2015. Ms. Parham said for eBay Marketplace, it's "business as usual."

On the mobile front, eBay in September said it was resurrecting its in-app mobile ads, after it pulled them last year. Rather than use the standard mobile banners, eBay will add a new so-called "native" ad to its mobile apps in the fourth quarter of this year.

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In this article:

Maureen Morrison

Maureen covers agencies as well as all things mobile, including the carriers, handsets and advertising, for Ad Age out of San Francisco. She previously wrote about the marketing of the fast food industry for Ad Age while also covering the agency world. Before entering reporting, she was Ad Age’s research editor, helping lead research and analysis for the publication’s reports including the Agency Report, Leading National Advertisers and 100 Leading Media Companies.

Natalie Zmuda

Natalie Zmuda oversees the CMO Strategy section and is responsible for identifying and analyzing the latest trends impacting chief marketers. Natalie also covers the retail and non-alcoholic beverage categories. She joined Advertising Age in 2008, following five years covering the retail and fashion industries for Conde Nast Publications.